It Isn’t Just in the Luxury Market That You Can Wow Customers

But this is a great example of doing it a way that DIDN’T cost much money.

What did it take?

It took staff who noticed and cared

I don’t know how they found out about the little boy’s surgery. It may have been that a staff member noticed when the kid came in on a stretcher or in a wheelchair. Or maybe his parent mentioned something on check-in. AND some staff member had been friendly enough that the parent opened up to them.

It took a culture that empowered staff

Noticing is one thing, but thinking about what we, as staff, could do to make that child (and his parents’) day better, and then acting on that thought, takes staff who have been trained and encouraged to color outside the lines.

It took creativity, not (much) money

The Batman toy can’t have been very expensive. But to think of getting it, and then pairing it with the letter and “direct line” to Batman, took creativity.

Tema Frank has been helping businesses and organizations market themselves more effectively on the Internet since the late 1990s. In 2001 she founded Web Mystery Shoppers Inc., one of the world's first remote usability testing companies, and one of the very few to do large-sample size usability testing.

In 2012 she launched the Frank Online Marketing Show, a weekly podcast devoted to helping Canadian companies become more successful online.

She has taught e-marketing at the University of Alberta and the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (in France), given seminars and workshops on the topic, and written about how the internet can help businesses sell more and communicate better.

She is also the author of the best-selling book, "Canada's Best Employers for Women: A guide for job-hunters, employees and employers."